Fatima was asked to use and identify appropriate properties of equality to find the value of y that makes the statement ¾ (y + 8) = ½ (2y + 4) true. She has written out her steps below. Label those steps with the property used.

4 (¾ (y + 8)) = 4(¼ (2y + 4)) (_____________________)
3 (y + 8) = 2y + 4 (simplify)
3(y) + 3(8) = 2y + 4 (_____________________)
3y + 24 = 2y + 4 (simplify)
3y – 2y + 24 = 2y – 2y + 4 (_____________________)
y + 24 = 4 (combine like terms)
y + 24 – 24 = 4 – 24 (_____________________)
y = -20

(show your work and like a 9th grader wrote it)

1 answer

Sure! Let's go through Fatima's steps and label them with the appropriate properties of equality:

  1. 4 (¾ (y + 8)) = 4 (½ (2y + 4)) (Multiplication Property of Equality)

    • This step shows that she multiplied both sides of the equation by 4 to eliminate the fractions.
  2. 3 (y + 8) = 2y + 4 (Simplify)

    • Here, she simplified the expressions on both sides.
  3. 3(y) + 3(8) = 2y + 4 (Distributive Property)

    • In this step, she applied the distributive property to distribute 3 across the terms in the parentheses.
  4. 3y + 24 = 2y + 4 (Simplify)

    • This is the simplification step, combining the products from the previous step.
  5. 3y – 2y + 24 = 2y – 2y + 4 (Subtraction Property of Equality)

    • In this step, she subtracted \(2y\) from both sides, maintaining equality.
  6. y + 24 = 4 (Combine like terms)

    • At this point, she combined like terms to simplify the equation.
  7. y + 24 – 24 = 4 – 24 (Subtraction Property of Equality)

    • Here, she subtracted 24 from both sides to isolate \(y\).
  8. y = -20 (Final Result)

    • This is the solution for \(y\).

So, the labeled steps would look like this:

  1. 4 (¾ (y + 8)) = 4 (½ (2y + 4)) (Multiplication Property of Equality)
  2. 3 (y + 8) = 2y + 4 (Simplify)
  3. 3(y) + 3(8) = 2y + 4 (Distributive Property)
  4. 3y + 24 = 2y + 4 (Simplify)
  5. 3y – 2y + 24 = 2y – 2y + 4 (Subtraction Property of Equality)
  6. y + 24 = 4 (Combine like terms)
  7. y + 24 – 24 = 4 – 24 (Subtraction Property of Equality)
  8. y = -20 (Final Result)

Fatima correctly used properties of equality to solve for \(y\)!